Abstract. Many discussion tools exist for threaded discussion. Although these
tools are similar in many ways, no standard way exists to represent,
archive, or translate the discussions create in these multiple
tools. A first step towards unifying our products, research, and development
is to define an XML data format for threaded discussions.
Group Contact: Gerry Stahl.
Gerry Stahl, U of Colorado
Matthew Realff, Georgia Tech
Patricia Schank, SRI
Chris Hoadley, SRI
Richard Wenn, WestEd
Jim Slotta, Berkeley
Charles Kerns,Stanford
Alex Cuthbert, Berkeley
Ken Schweller, Buena Vista University
Mark Guzdial, Georgia Tech
The short term goal of this group is to create an XML DTD (Document
Type Definition) for threaded discussions that would encompass the
discussion structures of tools previously developed by the group members.
The longer term goals are to use this initial step to help refine our
understanding of the space of online discussions (threaded or not), to
promote the interchange and archiving of discussions for research
and productivity purposes, and to inform future discussion about
standards for collaborative educational software.
The members of the group have unique experiences building threaded discussions.
These experiences are the basic resource for developing an XML DTD in this area.
They provide different perspectives on what is important and therefore
by synthesizing these perspectives the eventual DTD is likely to be more robust
and useful. The perspectives reflect not just the tool builders but also
tool users who want to ensure that the content they are building is not
lost as the tools evolve.
Within the next few months, the group will ennumerate the types of
information that are captured by each of the members' discussion groups.
We will draft and refine a DTD which captures the data found in each discussion
and a style sheet for rendering this information in a general way.
Each member is interested in adapting their tools to produce and possibly
import these discussion formats.
We welcome the participation of constituencies including developers
of discussion tools, researchers who could make use of archived discussion,
and the multiple constituencies of the standards development community.
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